Fade to Black.

Black filmmakers make the most profitable movies, but still fight for dollars and respect

AT FIRST GLANCE, THE SUMMER OF 2000 COULD EASILY BE remembered as a sizzling period for the "black" Hollywood blockbuster film. Temperatures reached record highs and moviegoers flocked to multiplexes to see films directed by or starring African Americans. Heading the list were Keenen Ivory Wayans' Scary Movie; The Nutty Professor II, starring Eddie Murphy; and Big Momma's House, with Martin Lawrence. Each film cleared the $100 million mark in domestic gross revenues. And director John Singleton's update of the classic, Shaft, garnered more than $70 million. While not a blockbuster, Spike Lee's The Original Kings of Comedy laughed past $30 million domestically and earned the director his highest opening weekend box office ever.

But even with this success, black film directors still have to fight for big budgets.

Budgets for some mainstream studio fare have reached the $100 million mark, with the average film costing around $50 million, while movies targeted to blacks usually have budgets averaging in the $13 million range. Typically made with no big-name stars, yet armed with marketable sound tracks, "black" films have proven to be money-makers for studios.

Based on history, it appears the rule is to keep "black" film budgets low and to look to peak domestic gross revenues of between $25 million and $40 million.

Look at House Party, which hit the big screen in 1990. It cost $2.5 million to make and grossed about $25 million domestically. Friday cost about $3.5 million and made about $27 million domestically.

Conversely, big studio event films such as Mission: Impossible 2 cost $100 million and grossed more than $200 million domestically. The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, however, cost Universal Pictures $76 million but was a major disappointment, grossing only $26 million.

BREAKING THE BARRIERS

Unquestionably, Wayans' triumph as the highest-grossing black director of all time with Scary Movie (the film has grossed more than $150 million domestically to date)--surpassing Sidney Poitier's Stir Crazy (1980), which grossed $101.1 million--is worthy of industry recognition. It demonstrates a black director's ability to succeed in the mainstream. Scary Movie is the highest-grossing film in Miramax's history, and Wayans has already agreed to do the sequel.

Scary Movie was marketed to the mainstream as a horror movie spoof, and the producers don't consider it a "black" movie. But the black director still only received a "black" film's budget. Says Jeff Friday, the executive producer and producer of the Acapulco Black Film Festival and president of UniWorld Films, "Scary Movie was never intended to be positioned as a black movie. It was a multiracial teen comedy and satire of mainstream horror flicks." The movie spoofs Miramax's Scream franchise films, which are targeted to teenagers of all ethnic groups.

Paramount saw Shaft's broad market appeal, a perspective that ultimately allowed Singleton to make the movie he wanted to make. "MGM did not want to spend $25 million on the film. They only saw it as a niche film," he says. Singleton took it to Paramount, and they spent $46 million on it. In addition, Shaft had an historical advantage and the marketability of Samuel L. Jackson, he says.

"Shaft was a marketing dream. It has been a part of the lexicon of our culture. Its brand is attractive to all audiences," says Shaft producer Paul E. Hall.

Studios view films like Universal's The Nutty Professor II as star-driven, summer vehicles not solely reliant on black theater attendance. Roz Stevenson, a former publicist for Universal Pictures who now runs her own Los Angeles-based public relations firm with Universal as a client, says, "Eddie Murphy is considered mainstream, not black, and has been marketed as mainstream since the mid-'80s." It was during that time that Murphy emerged as a movie star in 48 Hours. Murphy's marketability now earns him a whopping $20 million per film.

On the flip side, based on the definition of Stacey Spikes, a former marketing executive at Miramax and October Films (see the sidebar, "Black Films: The Definition Depends on Who's Talking"), Paramount's The Original Kings of Comedy--starring African American comedians Steve Harvey, Bernie Mac, D.L. Hughley, and Cedric the Entertainer--would perhaps be the only film to meet the criteria of a purely "black" film. It is based on the concert tour of the comedians who, while famous in the African American community, do not have the broad market notoriety of Murphy, Lawrence, and Chris Tucker. Shot on digital video as opposed to 35 millimeter film, the movie cost only $3 million to make but has grossed 10 times that already.

IT'S NOT ALL LAUGHS

"When there are no models for certain black films, like romantic dramas, there is a tendency on the part of studios to lowball projected grosses," says Spike Lee.

Spikes says all the studios have mathematical formulas for estimating gross revenues for each film they produce and what the commensurate budget should be. Such formulas include variables for star marketability, the director's reputation, and how an actor might be received in a foreign territory. Much of the studios' risk analysis is based on precedent, and historically films with all-black casts or dramatic African American themes have not performed strongly overseas, resulting in lower budgets in contrast to comparable white films.

So it would follow that black directors still lament the lack of diversity in films depicting blacks and the difficulty in securing financing for more serious representations of African Americans.

"There are lots of comedies, but the battle continues in getting dramas made. We have to look to alternative methods of financing and making films," says Lee.

To circumvent the challenges dramas face, Lee has looked outside the studio system in the past to bring his vision to the silver screen. For example, when Warner Bros. financed Malcolm X, albeit at a budget lower than what the filmmaker felt necessary to make the epic, Lee raised additional funds from wealthy celebrities, including Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, to complete the film.

His 1996 film about the Million Man March, Get On the Bus, which cost under $3 million, was funded by a group of African American businessmen. And when Lee first brought Bamboozled, his controversial fall 2000 release, to New Line Cinema, it was going to cost $23 million. Lee's decision to shoot the film on digital video brought the cost down to $11 million. Digital video is much cheaper than film.

Love & Basketball writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood faced major hurdles bringing her romantic drama about two aspiring pro basketball players to the big screen. "Every studio in town passed on the script before New Line made the film," she says.

The challenge of pushing dramas through the system is occurring in a climate in which studios are skittish about making dramas of any kind. It doesn't help that recent dramas featuring blacks, such as Rosewood and Beloved, were box office disappointments.

"It's not just a black thing. It's a Hollywood thing. Black comedies are doing well. People find what works, and they look to repeat it. Studios also look for franchises like Friday, X-Men, and Austin Powers," says Bamboozled associate producer and New Line executive story analyst Kisha Imani Cameron.

The angst surrounding making "black" dramas is evident in 20th Century Fox's treatment of Soul Food writer and director George Tillman Jr.'s fall 2000 film, Men of Honor, starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and Robert De Niro. Based on the true story of Carl Brashear, the first African American master diver for the U.S. Navy, the film cost $32 million. It tested well with domestic audiences and international distributors largely due to the positioning of the film as a man's triumph over obstacles, and a race movie. Further, De Niro's character was a compilation of two influential teachers in Brashear's diving school--a rival and a mentor. De Niro enhanced the movie's crossover appeal. "It took me two and a half years to get Men of Honor done. De Niro was a key factor in considering overseas markets," says Tillman.

Even with headliners like De Niro and Gooding, Tillman could not get the $50 million budget reserved for mainstream projects.

ON THE HORIZON

African Americans comprise more than 20% of the moviegoing public. However, in 1999, African American directors made up a meager 2.4% (out of a total of 6,564) of the membership of the Directors Guild of America.

Considering there are no African American studio executives with the authority to green-light films, it is not surprising that black films face enormous challenges in advancing through the studio system.

In discussing the issue of real change for African Americans in the current Hollywood system--in the form of diverse stories, more black filmmakers, writers, etc.--director Reginald Hudlin (House Party, Boomerang, Ladies Man) asserts, "We need more black executives, and I mean more than one token. Unfortunately, most studios don't even have that. The only way we'll see meaningful change is when blacks have their own studios, or [when] studios create black divisions."

It ultimately means managing risk in a risk-averse environment. And many doubt if budgets for "black" films will increase going forward. "At a time when there is pressure to bring budgets for all films down, I think it is hard to say that budgets for `black' films will increase based on this past summer," says Jay Stern, executive vice president of production at New Line Cinema, a studio responsible for a number of hit films directed by or starring African Americans, including House Party, Friday, Next Friday, and Love & Basketball.

[GRAPHS OMITTED]

THE PATRIOT

Executive Producer Dean Devlin Producer Dean Devlin Lead Actor Mel Gibson Lead Actress Mira Sorvino 

EXPENSES:

                                         Expenses
Category                               (In Millions)

Film Negative                              $110
Worldwide Prints & Advertising               70
Worldwide Home Video                         30
Interest & Overhead                          17
Profit Participation & Residuals             10

Total Expenses                             $237

NET REVENUES:

                                         Revenues
Category                               (In Millions)

Domestic Box Office Gross                   $60
International Box Office Gross               50
Worldwide Home Video                         65
Domestic Pay, Cable, Network TV              42
International Pay, Cable, Network TV         30
Airplane Viewing                              3

Total Revenues                             $250
NET PROFIT                                  $13

Source: Coker, Cheo Hodari "Hollywood Blackout," Premiere, (October 2000)

SCARY MOVIE

Executive Producer Keenan Ivory Wayans Producer Keenan Ivory Wayans Director Keenan Ivory Wayans Lead Actor Ensemble Cast Lead Actress Ensemble Cast

EXPENSES:

                                         Expenses
Category                               (In Millions)

Film Negative                               $19
Worldwide Prints & Advertising               65
Worldwide Home Video                         30
Interest & Overhead                           5
Profit Participation & Residuals             15

Total Expenses                             $134

NET REVENUES:

                                         Revenues
Category                               (In Millions)

Domestic Box Office Gross                   $70
International Box Office                     35
Worldwide Home Video                         65
Domestic Pay, Cable, Network TV              40
International Pay, Cable, Network TV         20

Total Revenues                             $230
NET PROFIT                                  $96

Source: Coker, Cheo Hodari, "Hollywood Blackout," Premiere, (October 2000)

Black Films: The Definition Depends Upon Who's Talking

In examining what constitutes "black" cinema, what is most clear is that no one definition exists. Industry experts acknowledge studios' hesitancy at labeling certain films "black" when the prospects for crossover to broader audiences are great. Perhaps director Reginald Hudlin said it best in his recent L.A. Times essay, "In Hollywood, `black' is code for `limited appeal.'" BE asked other major players in the industry to weigh in on what makes a film "black."

Jay Stern, executive vice president of production at New Line Cinema, says that his studio has no written definition of the term "black" movie. "I can only speak for myself. I see a black film as one with a predominantly black cast, and one that is targeted to only a black audience."

Stacy Spikes, a founder of New York's Urban World Film Festival and CEO of the newly formed Urbanworld Group, an independent film distributor, suggests, "If a picture only targets African Americans in its media, then it's a black film. If its media is targeted to a wider audience, then it's considered a film with crossover potential."

The Acapulco Black Film Festival, sponsored by the Black Filmmaker Foundation and UniWorld Films, requires that a film be directed or written and produced by a person of African descent to gain entry to the festival. Others would include in the definition any movie that depicts the African American experience, whether directed by an African American or not. Here, 1998's Beloved, directed by Jonathan Demme, starring Oprah Winfrey, and based on the Toni Morrison best-selling novel, would meet the definition. Some would even count films like Forest Whitaker's Hope Floats as black, despite the fact it is not about the black experience.

THE NEW BLOOD:

These directors are making a difference in Hollywood.

1) Keenen Ivory Wayans 

2) Malcolm Lee

3) The Hughes brothers

4) Gina PrinceBythewood

5) George Tillman Jr.

6) Reginald Hudlin

7) Forest Whitaker

Based on the Black Filmmaker Foundation's definition, many of the movies people think are black are not.

1) Beloved

2) Scary Movie

3) Love & Basketball

4) Big Momma's House

5) Hurricane

6) Shaft

7) The Original Kings of Comedy

8) Nutty Professor II